From the Scottish Pompei to the Spanish Stonehenge, plus the new Lost Golden City just discovered
in Egypt!
Here are ten of the most amazing and mysterious archaeological sites in the world!
10: The Lost Golden City In a shocking discovery from April 2021, archaeologists
uncovered Luxor’s Lost Golden City in Egypt!
It is now being called the most important discovery since Tutankhamun’s tomb!
That's saying a lot!!
This city dates back 3000 years and had been buried underneath the sand until pretty much
yesterday.
According to Egyptologist Betsy Bryan from Johns Hopkins University, the long-lost city
is going to provide archaeologists with an incredibly rare glimpse into the life of ancient
Egyptians at the time of Amenhotep III.
This was when the Egyptian empire was at its peak, it was wealthy with extensive trade
networks and an unstoppable workforce building wonders, and advancing in sciences.
This ancient pharaonic city is the largest ever discovered in Egypt.
Keep in mind that places like the Valley of the Kings, Saqqara, and other important archaeological
sites were not necessarily large cities.
But the Lost Golden City was a true metropolis with suburbs, fortifications, and commerce.
So far, archaeologists have discovered pieces of jewelry, shards of pottery vessels, scarab
amulets, and much more.
Another huge reason why this discovery is so important is that foreign expeditions have
been searching for this city for hundreds of years and never found it – until now.
Considering this amazing archaeological site was literally uncovered a few days before
making this video, we don't have tons of information about it right now, but you can be sure that
you will be hearing more about this place in the near future!!
9: The Sanxingdui Ruins Chinese archaeologists have made some incredible
discoveries in 2021 at the legendary Sanxingdui Ruins site, adding even more mystery to one
of the most misunderstood and under-reported archaeological sites in the world.
Workers discovered 6 new sacrificial pits and pulled out more than 500 items dating
back 3000 years.
The sacrificial pits were likely used by the ancient Shu civilization to offer living souls
to Earth and Heaven.
They may also have sacrificed people as a way to pray for peace and prosperity – says
Tang Fei, the head of the excavation team.
The team is made up of international professionals using modern technology and announced at a
conference that they are focussed on combining all kinds of techniques to learn as much as
they can while protecting the relics.
These newest discoveries along with others that have been made at the Sanxingdui Ruins
site show the uniqueness of the Shu civilization and the diversity that can be found in China.
One of the most amazing relics pulled out of the sacrificial pits was a gold mask unlike
anything seen before.
There were also jade tools, jade figurines, giant bronze masks, bird-shaped ornaments,
painted bronze head portraits, and carvings made from teeth.
8: Akrotiri The ruined city of Akrotiri is located on
the Greek island of Santorini, a popular vacation spot for international tourists.
The island is famous for its whitewashed villages and blue roofs and sunsets.
But to the south of the island you will find the remains of Akrotiri, a mysterious city
that archaeologists and historians know very little about.
What we do know is that the city was home to the ancient culture of the Minoans sometime
starting just after 4000 BC.
The city likely began as a small fishing village but grew to be a prosperous port city because
of its position on the trade route between mainland Europe and the Middle East.
Akrotiri was likely a democratic society with its own parliament.
The people lived in large two-story or three-story houses.
They had hot and cold water and some of the first indoor toilets in the world.
The city was also decorated with elaborate frescoes, the Minoans made their own wine,
they crafted their own sculptures, and they built their own furniture.
This is all very amazing considering it was going on during the Bronze Age when people
over in Britain were still living in huts and erecting stone circles.
Some people even claim Akrotiri may have been the inspiration for the legendary city of
Atlantis.
Between 1620 and 1530 BC, everything changed.
The volcano Thera erupted and literally blew the center out of Santorini.
This was one of the largest eruptions ever recorded and it created a caldera, or a huge
pit, 4 miles long.
It also triggered a 300-foot tsunami that crashed into Egypt.
By the time the volcano finished erupting, Akrotiri was buried beneath 200 feet of ash.
7: Mysterious Roman Villa In rural England, near the small town of Corby,
archaeologists recently discovered a new and mystifying site.
A team of experts from Oxford Archaeology East excavated around the site where ancient
Roman villas were discovered between 2011 and 2016 during construction.
It turned out that there was an entire valley full of Roman villas, with painted walls and
pottery fragments dating the structures back to the 1st century AD.
The newest excavation was in 2020, and it revealed a Romano-Celtic temple/mausoleum
built out of stone.
The ancient ceremonial structure had at some point been repurposed as a housing complex.
But before it was used to house anyone, it was something known to the Roman-Britons as
a monumentum, a type of funerary construction.
These types of temple-mausoleums weren’t used as communal gathering spots for religious
ceremonies.
Instead, they were used by the elites as expressions of success.
The huge monuments were made to memorialize the rich Roman-Britons who were able to afford
building them.
This particular structure found by the Oxford Archaeology East experts was built near a
henge monument from the Bronze Age, which itself was excavated in 2012.
Right now, it’s not clear what kind of link there was between the Roman elite who built
their monuments in ancient Britain and the prehistoric stone megaliths found throughout
the country.
Building a house near to one could have been like owning beachfront property.
And now for number 6 but first wanted to give a big shout out to XXX Thanks for joining
us in our little corner of the internet!
If you are new here be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already to join the OE family!
6: Ancient Amazon Paintings There is an amazing archaeological site in
the Amazon jungle where tens of thousands of paintings from the Ice Age were recently
discovered.
These bizarre paintings cover an area of about 8 miles and are drawn all across one long
cliff face.
What's truly fascinating is that the paintings on the cliff wall appear to show a variety
of extinct megafauna, from a giant sloth to what experts say could be a prehistoric mastodon.
Recent evidence has shown that the paintings were drawn by people sometime between 12,600
and 11,800 years ago.
These would have been the earliest human beings to settle the Amazon after having started
their journey crossing the Bering Strait around 4000 years earlier.
They made the paintings using a red natural pigment called ochre.
The area of the paintings is called Serrania la Lindosa, and it’s now being hailed as
one of the largest rock art sites on the planet.
Even more amazing is that at the time the ancient people were making these paintings,
the Amazon jungle would have been in the middle of a serious transformation, becoming the
hot and diverse jungle that we know today.
These old, unknown humans would have been hunting herbivores the size of cars – animals
that have been extinct now for thousands of years.
5: Mysterious French Megaliths Archaeologists working with the French National
Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research uncovered an impressive megalithic site in
2018, near the municipality of Massogny.
Researchers are still investigating the people who once lived in the area and constructed
the stone megaliths.
From what they've managed to learn so far, the obscure culture, known as the Cortaillod,
emerged in France around 4300 BC and lived in the area around Lake Geneva for at least
800 years.
Maybe even 1000 years!!
Along with the stone megaliths, researchers found evidence of a Neolithic village.
The megalithic complex would have been huge in its prime, made from around 15 giant standing
columns and surrounded by towers around 1 meter high.
But what’s truly interesting about this site is that the megalithic complex was altered
at a later date for unknown reasons.
The standing stones were flipped onto their sides and then buried under the dirt.
Regardless of why, this actually helped protect the stones and when they were uncovered, researchers
found that these toppled stone towers had curious markings etched into their sides that
archaeologists have not been able to decipher.
They almost appear to have been made haphazardly – though researchers are positive they had
something to do with the sudden deconstruction of the stone complex.
On the largest stone, there are 20 marks carved out making the shape of a large U.
There are indentations and intertwined chevrons.
Other geometric shapes are on the smaller stone slabs.
The team is using special technology to bring out details that might not be visible to the
naked eye.
The question is, what were these builders trying to tell us?
4: The Burnt City of Iran The Burnt City of Iran is located near Zabol
and is one of the largest Bronze Age settlements found anywhere throughout Iran or the Middle
East.
Some believe that the Burnt City of Iran, known locally as Shahr-I Sokhta, was the capital
of an ancient civilization that prospered on the shores of the Helmand River back around
3000 BC.
The city spans about 200 hectares and has been linked to the ancient and legendary city
of Aratta, written of in Mesopotamian and Sumerian texts.
Aratta was said to be a difficult to reach place that was incredibly rich in gold and
other precious metals, with a massive temple built entirely from lapis lazuli to honor
the great goddess Inanna.
In reality, archaeologists have discovered that this ancient city was a trading hub for
merchants from Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and the Indus Valley.
It was one of the first complex societies in Iran and apparently burnt down at least
three times before the final fire in 1800 BC caused everyone to abandon the place.
And even though experts have combed through the broken ruins of this once-prosperous city,
nobody can explain why it burned down and was rebuilt time and time again.
There have been many mysterious graves found here – over 1200 of them.
Some incredible remains have been dug up, including a woman who died around 2900 BC
and was buried with a bronze mirror and an artificial eyeball.
3: The Mysterious Cave of Kalaroos These mysterious caves are located in the
Kashmir region of India.
These caves are said to be so vast that they travel underground all the way to Russia.
There is even a massive stone structure called Satbaran with seven doors carved into it that
are known locally as Sath Barr, with some saying the doors represent seven different
routes that can bring a person to one of seven different places on Earth.
And there are other caves nearby too, such as the copper mine cave named Tramkhan.
In 2018, a pair of American explorers set out to reach the ends of the mysterious Kalaroos
Caves.
They managed to explore three of them and reach their termination points – though
they did say that the caves could have been connected to other subterranean passages in
the past.
One of the caves was apparently sealed by the Indian Army.
The rest of the caves haven't really been explored.
Could they have led to different places as far away as Russia or China in the past, before
the modern age?
Well, nobody really knows for sure – but it’s definitely possible.
The truly strange thing is that nobody even knows who or what built the seven stone gateways
known as the Satbaran.
They stick out of the ground on the side of a grassy hill like a sacred monument lost
to time.
Nobody knows how long they’ve been there.
2: Skara Brae Skara Brae has been described as the Scottish
Pompeii.
It was first discovered in 1850 when Scotland was hit hard by a fatal storm.
By the time the storm subsided, at least 200 citizens had died.
But the storm had brought more than death.
It had also revealed something strange and ancient from the earth, on the coast of Orkney
Island.
The high tides and strong winds had ripped apart the land to reveal the ruins of small
houses close to the Bay o’ Skaill.
But even though a piece of history had clearly been unveiled, nobody really excavated the
site and it sat there abandoned.
It wasn't until 1925 that efforts were made to protect the relics by building a seawall.
And that was when even more structures were discovered.
Since then, there have been archaeological expeditions to Orkney to try and decipher
the mystery of these ruins.
Researchers believe Skara Brae was settled as early as 3180 BC and remained a popular
town for at least 600 years.
This means it was an active town in the Neolithic age.
Even more impressive than its age has been the sheer number of artifacts discovered throughout
the incredibly well-preserved settlement.
This is why it's nicknamed the Scottish Pompeii.
Because it is the best-preserved human settlement anywhere in northern Europe.
The artifacts went untouched for thousands of years, and archaeologists were able to
discover stone balls, shovels, beads, knives, and even the remains of a drainage system
that led to the ocean and may have been used as one of the very first actual toilets ever
made by human hands.
The mystery here is that nobody knows what happened to the people who once lived in Skara
Brae.
They vanished after occupying the region for 600 years and nobody knows why.
1: Spanish Stonehenge A recent drought revealed what is being called
the Spanish Stonehenge, after it was lost at the bottom of a reservoir for over half
a century.
The Spanish Stonehenge is known properly as the Dolmen of Guadalperal, and it was revealed
when a brutal drought caused the waters of a local reservoir to recede.
The ancient monument was then captured in images by NASA satellites.
But just what does this site have in common with Stonehenge?
Well, the Dolmen of Guadalperal was built of 150 granite stones arranged in a circle
with an entranceway guarded by a massive standing stone carved with images of snakes.
It is kind of like Stonehenge, only smaller.
It’s also a dolmen, which means the standing stones were once used to support a massive
capstone, which would have created a large structure – probably used as an ancient
burial tomb.
So far as experts know, this place was used either as a tomb, a trading post, or a site
of great religious significance.
The archaeological site was first discovered by a German archaeologist named Hugo Obermaier
in 1926.
Hugo also found artifacts likely left behind by the builders.
But then in 1963, the government flooded the area to create the reservoir and the stones
were submerged until now.
There’s still almost nothing known about the Dolmen of Guadalperal, including who built
it, why they built it, or when.
Which of these places would you love to visit yourself?
Let me know in the comments and thanks for watching.
Be sure to hit that subscribe button for even more incredible videos!